execs

LinkedIn leads as best social network for recruiting new business

For agencies targeting new business opportunities, the best tactics are a mix of traditional and new media—with a heavy emphasis on digital. According to a July 2013 survey of US agency executives from RSW/US, a business development firm, client case studies and content marketing posted on the agency website were the top two promotional tactics used to generate leads, cited by 62.6% of respondents each. The agency blog was also seen as effective, even slightly more so than social media outreach. And half of respondents cited press releases and publicity as a useful means of getting the names of potential new clients.

Email lead capture programs were seen as effective for generating leads by just 29.7% of agency execs, while advertising was even less popular.

Unsurprisingly, when rating the most important social platform for generating new business, LinkedIn was No. 1, cited by 46.2% of respondents, followed by a company blog, with a 24.1% share of total responses. Facebook and Twitter were tied for a lesser 13.8% of respondents.

But when ranking networks independently, rather than against each other, based on their effectiveness for driving new business, LinkedIn’s lead substantially diminished. Asked by RSW/US in April 2013 about social platform use vs. effectiveness for generating new business, LinkedIn and Facebook were tied by both measures. Twenty-one percent used each network to get leads, and 19% of users rated each as effective—defined as deserving a seven to 10 on a scale of 10. Twitter also showed a comparable amount of value. Twenty p! ercent used the microblog, and 17% of agency execs considered it effective.

CEOs are becoming more personally involved in digital business initiatives, according to a recent study from the McKinsey Group. The survey, of 850 C-level executives from around the world, found 31% saying that CEOs personally sponsor such initiatives at their organization, a marked increase from 23% indicating that to be the case last year. Interestingly, respondents also suggested that CIOs have more direct engagement in these activities than CMOs.

The study examined participation in 5 digital-enterprise trends:

Big data and advanced analytics;

Digital engagement of customers;

Digital engagement of employees and external partners;

Automation; and

Digital innovation.

63% of respondents indicated that CIOs are either supportive and sponsoring these initiatives (26%) or supportive and directly engaged (37%) in them, with 54% concurring with respect to CMO involvement. (An analysis of the CMO/CIO relationship can be found here.)

Also of note: this year, 37% said the CFO is sponsoring digital business initiatives or otherwise directly engaged, up from 32% last year.

Media industry executives feel that over-the-top (OTT) video services such as Netflix are more likely to lead to cord-shaving than cord-cutting behavior, according to [download page] a recent report from StreamingMedia.com. Among the 758 executives surveyed, 51% said they believe that consumers are responding to the emergence of pure OTT video services by cutting back on their pay-TV channel packages and supplementing them with OTT content. By comparison, 23% feel that consumers are responding by canceling their traditional pay-TV subscriptions in favor of OTT video.

Interestingly, the StreamingMedia.com study finds that pay-TV operators are far less likely to believe that consumers will cut the cord due to the emergence of OTT video. Just 5% of pay-TV operators responding to the survey believe that’s the case, compared to 22% of technology vendors and 25% of content providers. Instead, pay-TV operators are more likely to believe that consumers are responding to OTT video by cutting back on channel packages.

Havas CEO David Jones said in a statement, “I’m not sure this is in the best interests of their clients or their talent. Clients today want us to be faster, more agile, more nimble and more entrepreneurial, not bigger and more bureaucratic and more complex.”

And can it be more agile at such a large scale? Particularly “in a world where digital and technology have made scale irrelevant.”

Jones continued, “Our business is very simple – it’s about clients and talented employees – and as I said, I’m not sure this move is good for either of them.”

But Omnicom CEO John Wren said at the press conference today that “anyone who is concerned about any of this should not be.”

Apple’s iPad business, which is supposed to be its second mega-business, has already hit the wall as far as growth is concerned.

Last quarter, Apple reported sales of 14.6 million units, a 14% drop on a year-over-year basis. On the company’s earnings call, Apple’s execs said that if you look at the actual sell through of the iPad, and factor in channel inventory changes, then it was down 3%.

Part of the reason the iPad business fell is that Apple didn’t roll out a new version of the iPad last quarter. In the June 2012 quarter, it was introduced the high-resolution iPad which boosted sales. With no new model of the iPad, sales lagged in comparison.

However, last year Apple wasn’t selling the iPad Mini. The $329 iPad Mini should have provided enough of a lift to offset the lack of a new iPad model.

This isn’t just a one-off bad quarter. If you look at the trend, you can see that growth is in a general nose dive for the iPad. Analyst Gene Munster says the reason the iPad business is weaker than expected is that the market is “becoming more price sensitive than we previously expected.” In other words, consumers are buying cheaper tablets from Apple’s rivals.

83% of executives from around the world surveyed in 2012 reported using at least one social technology, up from 72% in 2011, per results [pdf] from a new McKinsey survey. Of those, 9 in 10 reported some measurable business benefit with employees, customers, and business partners. 65% said their use of social tech increases marketing […]

He’s only been in the job since 2011 (previously he was at ActiVision), but that makes him a veteran given the high-level of turnover in Pepsi’s brand management offices (30 execs have bailed since 2008).

Those changes have not been kind to Pepsi, as we noted recently: Pepsi’s Americas Beverage unit, which sells the iconic soda, saw a 10 percent operating profit decline to $2.9 billion in 2012, on a 4.5 percent dollar sales decline to $21.4 billion. That’s $1 billion less in sales from 2011, the company reported in its 10-K. (The reduction was due in part to a discontinued Mexican business but it inclu! ded sale s declines in North America and in its flagship soda business.)

Nielsen last week took a symbolic step toward helping the biz monetize TV viewing done via the Internet. But reaction to the ratings service’s decision to add Internet-connected TV sets to its formal definition of a “TV household” was muted among execs because it addresses only part of the vexing measurement challenges facing traditional TV nets.

Nielsen had been grappling with adjusting the definition in order to count homes that only receive programming via broadband connections as part of the universe of TV homes. The decision unveiled to TV and advertising execs on Thursday had been expected (Daily Variety, Jan. 10).

Underscoring the shift in behavior, Nielsen’s estimate of the number of U.S. TV households has dropped in recent years, sliding from 115.9 million in 2011 to 114.6 million in 2012.

And some can be attributed to cord-cutting and “cord nevers,” or the rise in the number of younger viewers who rely on Internet-delivered sources and have never subscribed to cable, satellite or telco service.

Nielsen last week took a symbolic step toward helping the biz monetize TV viewing done via the Internet. But reaction to the ratings service’s decision to add Internet-connected TV sets to its formal definition of a “TV household” was muted among execs because it addresses only part of the vexing measurement challenges facing traditional TV nets.

Nielsen had been grappling with adjusting the definition in order to count homes that only receive programming via broadband connections as part of the universe of TV homes. The decision unveiled to TV and advertising execs on Thursday had been expected (Daily Variety, Jan. 10).

New definition doesn’t encompass homes where viewers only receive TV via tablets and smartphones. The growth of viewing on tablets is seen as a big driver of second-screen multi-tasking activities surrounding TV shows, particularly among younger viewers. Not being able to capture the viewing among auds who are highly engaged with programming is frustrating to bizzers.

There’s also the issue of how to count viewing done via VOD and Web streaming platforms where the program’s commercial load does not match up with the spots aired during the linear telecast. As such, the industry’s goal of achieving an omnibus number that captures how many people watch a particular program over a given time frame (and there’s even a healthy debate about the best time parameters) remains far out of reach, for now.

Underscoring the shift in behavior, Nielsen’s estimate of the number of U.S. TV households has dropped in recent years, sliding from 115.9 million in 2011 to 114.6 million in 2012. Some of the drop can be attributed to the disruption of the broadcast biz’s transition to all-digital signals in 2009, which left behind a small percentage o! f Americ ans with older TV sets.

And some can be attributed to cord-cutting and “cord nevers,” or the rise in the number of younger viewers who rely on Internet-delivered sources and have never subscribed to cable, satellite or telco service.

Regardless of the reason, the decline in the TV household universe estimate is alarming for industryites, especially amid other reports that many Americans are watching more TV than ever before precisely because there are so many options for viewing.

The number of homes that will be added to the total TV universe under the new definition, to take effect in the 2013-14 season, is less than 1%. In discussions with network execs and Madison Avenue, Nielsen characterized the definition shift for fall 2013 as a first step. The company that provides the ratings that are the currency of ad-supported TV is clearly continuing to feel the pressure to crack the multiplatform-measurement conundrum.

“On the path to capturing all viewing in all homes, this foundational change addresses the lion’s share of viewing, in effect including any home with a TV that can receive video via an external source,” said Pat McDonough, Nielsen’s senior veep of insights and analysis.

Digital Consigliere

Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights.